Chapter 86: Something’s wrong
Violet’s mind is currently detonating rapidly like a fireball spell.
When she had agreed to leave her room, she genuinely assumed he would walk beside her as a supportive escort. She had not anticipated that this idiot would casually hold her hand and walk her across the campus in broad daylight—looking for all the world like a pair of hopelessly smitten lovers.
She was so utterly mortified she felt her soul trying to leave at every step, yet deep beneath the embarrassment, her heart fluttered with a sweet warmth.
Now, seated safely in the back row of the lecture hall during a class on mana circuit dynamics, Violet stole a glance at the man beside her. Eren was leaning forward, chin resting in his palm, looking entirely absorbed in the lecture.
"Eren..." she called out in a tiny, mouse-like whisper, trying desperately to avoid drawing the lecturer’s attention.
Eren turned his head. "Hm? What’s wrong, Miss Violet? Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?"
"N-No, it’s not that," she stammered, her face still flushed.
She hesitated, fidgeting with the corner of her book before leaning in closer. "I... I was just wondering... were you really okay with holding my hand like that outside? I mean... not because of my curse, but..."
She swallowed hard, looking down at her book with apprehension. "Please don’t take this the wrong way... but you are publicly engaged to Lady Aria Reedings now. Back when she was engaged to Lord Reinhardt, she used to bully Alice out of possessive jealousy terribly... What if she misinterprets our situation and... and bullies me?"
Eren stared at her before he choked with laughter. He completely forgot that in the original timeline, Aria wasn’t just a cold, calculating political mastermind. She was an overly obsessed, jealous villainess who terrorized the protagonist! To normal students, she’s still a walking nightmare.
"Don’t worry about Lady Aria," Eren replied smoothly, stifling a chuckle. "She’s not like before. She’s completely chill now."
Violet looked at him, her purple eyes wide with total disbelief. Her face practically screamed: ’Are you out of your mind?! The villainess of the high nobility is NOT chill!’
Seeing her utterly unconvinced expression, Eren leaned in closer to her ear. "Can you keep an important secret, Miss Violet?"
Violet blinked, nodding her head eagerly like a dutiful pupil.
"Great," Eren whispered casually. "Because Lady Aria doesn’t even mind the fact that I already have three other secret girlfriends."
Violet froze.
The air instantly left her lungs. Her face turned crimson, and the color traveled from the tip of her neck straight to the roots of her hair. Her brain completely suffered an overload; her thinking functions halted.
"Three...?" she mumbled under her breath, staring blankly ahead like a possessed maiden. "Three girlfriends... already...? Engaged to Aria...? And she’s... chill...?"
Eren let out a quiet, thoroughly entertained laugh at her broken state, turning his attention back to the professor’s chalk-dusted blackboard. He probably could have kept his situation a secret from his innocent desk mate,
But breaking her brain with his chaos was far too funny to pass up—and besides, keeping her mind occupied with my scandalous harem is a hundred times better than letting her drown in guilt of occupying him from Aria.
While Violet continued her rambling, Eren stared toward the front of the room with focus.
He wasn’t paying a single shred of attention to the professor’s dry lecture on circuit theory. Instead, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a split second, and opened them again with a subtle mental push.
Instantly, the physical reality in front of him shifted. The thick, solid wall and the blackboard behind the professor gradually bled into a semi-transparent state, allowing his vision to see straight through to the hallway beyond.
’Hawkeye,’ Eren noted.
It was the same spell he had accidentally used against Reinhardt a week ago and the unexplainable fire punch inside the Student Council office. Until now, his internal mana pathways had been completely dormant, a barren wasteland that even a genius like Norelia couldn’t detect.
Yet, every single time he manifested these bizarre magical things... he had been sitting directly beside Violet.
Eren quietly looked down at his own palm. For the first time in his new life, he could actually feel current pulsing beneath his skin. Mana was actively circulating through his veins.
He glanced back at his still thoroughly short-circuited desk mate.
"Miss Violet," Eren requested politely, keeping his voice low as he extended his open hand toward her. "Would you mind placing your hand in mine for a moment?"
Violet blinked, her wide purple eyes snapping out of her harem-induced shock. Though completely bewildered by the sudden request, she timidly reached out and rested her palm against his.
The moment their skin made contact, the faint, familiar itching sensation beneath Eren’s skin intensified slightly.
’No doubt about it,’ Eren concluded, his mind rapidly processing the situation. ’What’s seeping into my body right now... is mana, not curse.’
According to the original game’s lore, Violet wasn’t supposed to be an infinite mana generator. She was supposed to be afflicted by a curse that passively gathered and compressed volatile, deadly miasma inside her body until it inevitably exploded, transforming her into a mindless boss monster.
Eren leaned in slightly. "Tell me, Violet... when Alice is near you, does she describe feeling a subtle, itching sensation beneath her skin? Something like a foreign energy trying to force its way in?"
Violet paused, her brow furrowing as she recalled her past conversations with the Saintess. "N-No... Alice once described it as feeling like the air around me is slightly suffocating. She said it feels like trying to breathe underwater. But because she possesses holy mana, her body passively purifies it, so she isn’t harmed."
Eren’s eyes narrowed into slits analytically.
"Is... is something wrong, Eren?" Violet asked with a sudden spike of anxiety as she noticed his serious expression.
"Not at all," Eren replied, making a reassuring smirk. "In fact, things might be significantly better than we thought. Do me a favor and hold my hand just like this until the lecture concludes. Afterward, you’re going to meet up with Alice and ask if she senses any change in you."
Violet had zero idea what kind of theory was whirring inside his head, but seeing the confidence in his eyes, she gave an eager, obedient nod.
Her heart instantly began hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird as she realized something: she had to hold hands with her handsome, engaged, harem-owning desk mate right in the middle of a packed lecture hall like a pair of reckless teenage lovers.
Eren offered her a warm, effortless smile, squeezing her fingers gently.
"Don’t worry, Miss Violet," Eren murmured, turning his gaze back to the front of the class. "I think I might have just figured out how to cure you."